1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ironing appliance comprising a pump that includes a pumping chamber equipped with an inlet and an outlet, the pumping chamber including a movable wall displaceable under the action of a piezoelectric actuator for displacing the membrane in order to aspirate fluid through the inlet and then discharge it through the outlet.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese patent application #62142597 discloses a clothing iron comprising a piezoelectric pump that supplies a vaporization chamber with water from a receptacle. In this document, the piezoelectric pump is vertically positioned and includes a pumping chamber comprising an inlet and an outlet positioned vertically one above the other, the outlet being located below the inlet.
However, such a piezoelectric pump has the disadvantage of not enabling rapid and easy expulsion of air bubbles introduced in the pumping chamber, for example during no-load operation of the pump in the absence of water in the receptacle. In particular, with such a configuration of the piezoelectric pump, the air bubbles tend to get stuck in the top portion of the pumping chamber and cannot be expelled.
A piezoelectric pump has the disadvantage of having a movable wall with only a very slight clearance such that pump performance is greatly diminished when bubbles are present in the pumping chamber.